Thursday, June 17, 2010

"Wizarding World" Outshines Suburbia

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry--The first "high school" in Orange County in many years geared to pedestrians, without a massive parking lot in front and blank wall architecture.

Olympia High School. The dismal setting awaiting thousands of Orange County teens in August. Blank walls, conducive to crime, require that we surround our high schools with guard houses and chain link fences.

Village of Hogsmeade at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Numerous windows provide "eyes on the street" and a feeling of comfort, even though no one truly lives above the shops. Universal pulled the buildings to the street to give architectural definition.

Back to reality...single use, mostly windowless, massive (half empty) parking lot development required and encouraged by our zoning laws. Development similar to the Village of Hogsmeade is illegal under the Orange County Code, without obtaining numerous variances.

The New York Times reported one 21 year old Wizarding World visitor giving a "tearful admission" that, “I really wanted to live here; it was so much better than our real lives.” It's sad commentary about our built environment when, to find authentic places, we must go to a theme park.

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About this Blog

I converted my old campaign website into this blog. After Commissioner Boyd appointed me to the Orange County Planning and Zoning Board, I decided to use this blog to discuss issues of importance affecting local government, and to expound on ideas for improving our built environment.

At community meeting after community meeting, citizens express outrage and opposition to new development proposals. Citizens appear before the Planning and Zoning Board, fearful that approval will enable another McDonald's with cartoon architecture or another strip shopping center with a massive, half-empty parking lot in front. Attitudes toward our built environment range mostly from dislike to indifference.

The 1960s-era suburban sprawl model causes traffic congestion, traps our children, the disabled, and elderly in subdivisions without transportation, and produces strip commercial development of poor aesthetic quality. We build sidewalks without shade trees despite Florida's oppresive summer heat. We build subdivisions with 60% or more of each house front devoted to a blank garage. Having turned our roadways into highways, our kids can no longer walk to school.

There is a better way. We are fortunate to have real-world models in Central Florida founded on principles of New (and traditional) Urbanism--Baldwin Park, Celebration, Avalon Park, and Winter Park's Park Avenue--for all to experience. However, our zoning codes make walkable communities illegal (without jumping through innmerable hoops).

I am hopeful this blog will help educate about the benefits of form-based zoning reforms enacted in 2010 in Miami and Denver and under consideration in other cities. The new codes, over the course of decades, can change development configurations from suburban sprawl to walkable urbanism. I compiled the links below to provide you with a multitude of sources. I am hopeful you will join me in advocating a better way.

Rick

"The Legality of Form-Based Zoning Codes," Journal of Land Use... (FL State Univ School of Law)

About Rick

I am a partner with Fishback Dominick in Winter Park, a law firm founded in 1935, where I practice in the areas of business and commercial litigation and, on a selective basis, land use law. I taught Land Use Law as an adjunct professor in the Master of Planning in Civic Urbanism program at Rollins College, in Winter Park, Florida for three years. I previously served as an Orange County Planning and Zoning Commissioner, appointed by District 1 Commissioner Scott Boyd. I reside in Winter Park with my wife, Gabriela, and four terrific kids.

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Below you'll find links to interesting blogs and websites relating to transportation, the law, and the built environment. I don't necessarily agree with all positions taken by the blogging authors, but generally find them well-informed and thoughtful.